Something in Common WIP
by DaBear
Summary: Bit of a writers block but here is what I have for chapter 8. Faith and Buffy finally have something in common. F/X
1. Shoulda Stayed in Bed

Something in Common : A Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction 

Something in Common.  
A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Fanfiction.  
by DaBear  


~~~~

**SUMMARY :**  
_ Rated R for adult language, gore and sexual situations. Post 'The Gift' Alternate Univerise - Faith finally gets something in common with Buffy. And strangely enough Xander. X-Over fiction with Highlander. The Buffy characters do not belong to me, they belong to Joss Whedon and Co., Mutant Enemy, 20th Century Fox, WB, UPN, and so on and so on. Highlander is someone else's property also, I have no idea who's. In other words there is no intent to make money here, so don't sue me. This is a Faith/Xander romance/action adventure story._

_From to much love of living  
From hope and fear set free  
We thank with brief thanksgiving  
Whatever gods there be  
That no life lives forever  
That dead men rise up never  
That even the weariest river  
Winds somewhere safe to sea_  
  
Excerpt from 'The Garden of Proserpine' by   
Algernon Charles Swinburne - (1837-1909) 

~~~~

**LA County Correctional Facility for Women.  
Los Angeles, CA  
Cellblock 6, Cell 5318.  
October 4th, 2001 22:38 PDT.**

The walls of cellblock 6 seem to writhe back and forth, surging in sympathy with the teaming mass of humanity condensed within the concrete walls. Fires were burning throughout the block and voices screamed in agony and anger. Smoke curled up between the walkways to wreath the roof in a boiling black cloud, seeming to slither along the ceiling as if in search for something, or someone. The riot had started 2 hours before with a muttered comment heard by the wrong girl, the shouts and screams now rebounding off the prison walls giving testament to the volatile nature that is man, or in this case woman.

The noise and commotion was making it difficult for Faith to get any sleep. Actually she could have slept through the noise if she had wanted to, but during the first few minutes of the riot, one of the prisoners had managed to open the electronic doors to the cell block, braking the panel in the process, making it difficult or the guards to shut them down again. Since there was nothing to guard her back while she slept, Faith just sighs at the loss of sleep and leans back on the sink watching the open cell door ready for and trouble that may arise. A few years ago she would have been down there on the ground floor raising hell, kicking ass and generally having a blast. But lately she has come to the realization that there is no need for her to search out trouble, it seems it would inevitably find her.

Faith hadn't made many friends in prison over the last 2 years. Scratch that, take out the 'm' and you have the right answer. So she finds herself in her current predicament. Alone in her room, tired and feeling a bit under the weather but unable to rest because she doesn't feel like waking up to a shive in the kidney. She wished that everyone would leave her alone, she doesn't fuck with them they shouldn't have to fuck with her. Right? Wrong, if you aren't at the top of the heap you were at the bottom, there was no middle ground, no neutral territory. **Remind me to thank B for this lovely suggestion for a vacation spot.** Faith shakes her head at that thought. It's not B's fault she was here. The steps she had taken had led her here. Still she hates the dog-pack mentality of the prison. Alpha bullshit and all that.

She shakes her head at a crashing sound far below on the ground level and briefly thinks about going out to look, but the rules say that you are supposed to remain in your cell in case of a riot. Unless you wanted to add a few years onto your sentence, of course. She doesn't understand the other inmate's actions. Then again she wasn't here for the same reason as most of the inmates, she thinks ruefully. She was here to be reformed, to repent, and to make up for the things that she had done. Meanwhile most of the rest of the inmates were just here till there time was up, then they were going to be back on the streets doing whatever it was that got them in here in the first place. 

As Faith calmly stands in her cell waiting for the furor to die down and the guards to regain control, she gets a twinge in her stomach, a pain so subtle she almost ignores it since she hasn't been feeling good all day. But then the pain spreads out to her other organs, spiking her kidneys, ripping into her lungs and then it begins to burn. Her heart clenches in pain and misses a beat; her stomach convulses in protest. Clutching at her stomach Faith doubles over the sink and starts to dry heave. Her muscles spasm suddenly and Faith falls to the floor twitching and writhing in pain.

A footstep outside her cell catches Faiths ear. **Someone's here. Get up, get up, get up getupgetupgetupgetup. GET UP!! Don't let it end like this. GET THE FUCK UP!!!**

"Ahhh, there you are my pretty. Well, it seems the poison is having the effect that they promised it would. Remind me to thank them. Oh, wait. You won't be here to remind me. Nevermind." Faiths Slayer sense kicks in overtime as those words are spoken. Her head is ringing with the presence of the frail-seeming female in prisoner denim that steps into her cell. "The Council has asked me to give you their regrets, but they must ask that you tender your resignation." The female grins a sudden deaths head grin, all teeth and no feeling there beyond pure malice; and then she starts to... change. Gaining near two feet in height in an instant she rips out of her clothing, it flutters around her ankles in strips like confetti. Then she begins to expand outwards, gaining huge amounts of mass and muscle until she stands at a little over seven feet tall and looks like a bad cartoon version of a bodybuilder, with muscles upon muscles and just a badly stretched pair of panties covering her. Its skin is a pale bluish hue, and she has hair and eyes of the most deadly shade of white. This demon is something that Faith had never seen before, and judging from the blinding headache that she was getting from its mere presence one she hoped to never see again. 

Faith groans as what the demon said registers and her fears are realized. With B's death four months ago she had been waiting for the inevitable assassin. She knew that the Council looked upon her as a liability. Since there had been no new Slayer called when B took her swan dive she was pretty sure that the Council would sooner or later send someone to get rid of her and make way for the next Slayer. One more malleable to there plans and wishes. She briefly flirts with the thought of letting the demon kill her, then thinks of what Angel would say to that and quickly brushes the thought aside.

From the floor Faith gasps out "Nasty looking fucker ain't ya."

Grinning her trademark cocky grin Faith pulls herself off the floor with difficulty and grins her determination to take this demon on and kick its ass just like she has always done. "Tell the Council that they can stick their regards up their collective ass." With that said she jumps into the air and executes a picture perfect spin kick to the demon's head. Unfortunately the demon doesn't show any affect to the kick, just standing there and grinning maliciously as Faith lands on her feet unsteadily. "Fuck, what are you? The Hulk?"

Growling in anger the demon backhands Faith across the cell and into the wall, cracking her skull against the unyielding concrete and making Faith's vision go blurry in pain. Refusing to give up Faith pushes herself back to her feet and then launches herself at the demon and proceeds to deliver an uppercut to its chin followed by a spinning crescent kick to its neck. The demon just stands there and laughs. None of her hits are doing damage, it's like a 4 year old trying to beat up an adult. It ignores her haymaker to its chin, her round kick to its ribs and her attempted leg sweep and just stands there and laughs and laughs and laughs.

Then, with a contemptuous sweep of its arm the blue skinned demon knocks Faith across the cell and out the open door. Faith rebounds off the railing; barely catching herself in time to avoid a five story fall. Gasping for breath Faith grips the railing overlooking the cellblock and stares fearfully down the open drop. **Thats about the same height that B fell from.** was the thought that flits through her mind as she is trying to catch her breath. She feels weak, like something had sapped her strength and sick with the burning sensation racing through her guts, pain spiking up and down her nervous system. Shaking off her daze as she hears the monster stomping towards her, Faith staggers back up to her feet and turns around to face the demon. Just in time to catch the vicious uppercut to her jaw that lifts her up and over the railing and sends her plummeting towards the crowds below. 

As the floors rush past Faith tries desperately to twist her body around to give her some sort of safe landing. Failing that she is hoping that maybe she'll hit someone and they'll cushion her fall. All she manages to do was allow herself to see the floor rocket up to meet her. No one was under her, they had seen her body thrown from the walkway and scattered in fright.

**Hope B's not mad at me anymore. I'll be seeing her a lot sooner then I had thought.**

And then Faith knew no more as she hits the concrete floor with a sickening thud and the snapping of braking bones.

~~~~

The morgue tends to be a disturbing place to most people. There are many different factors that lead to this disquite. The temperature that the room is kept at is one, the chill of the room seemingly trying to impart the feel of death to the living interlopers that dare to work with the dead in its confines. The smells also lend to the sense of dread, the slow rot of dead bodies and the chemical smells that burn the fine membrains of the nose. Finally there is the utter lack of sound, except for those made by the living. 

The L.A. County morgue is empty of the living, the clock on the wall reads 3:30 a.m.

In the far corner of the room there are six bodies laid out upon gurnies, shrouded with white sheets, still and quite obviously dead given where they are. These six are the casualties of the prison riot; beaten, shot, stabbed or crushed. All six of these young females could have been something better, something brighter. And among these six is one who is about to be the recipient of a small miracle, a second chance at life. A life few would dream of, a life that fewer still would wish for.

It's been a little over three hours since the bodies had been wheeled into the morgue by the hospital staff. The coroners assistant had wanted to go home to his new wife, she was a lovely little thing and had promised him something special tonight. So he had had left before 1:00, after only a brief inspection of his new charges. He wouldn't have noticed anything amiss with the bodies, but if he had stayed he would have witnessed something few get to see. Then again his new wife was an eager little thing, he probably would have preferred to be at home anyway.

As the clocks LED flips to 3:32 the silence of the room is broken. The crackle of a small electrical discharge could have been heard if there had been anyone there to listen. Following the slight crackle there is a period of silence followed by a series of sharp cracks. Likewise, if any one had been there to listen carefully they would have heard 24 separate noises, which so happens to have been the number of bones that one Faith Williams broke when she was thrown from a fifth story walkway.

Next comes the exciting part. The Breath of Life, the first gasp of air of one whom had just risen from the dead. And Faith doesn't fail us here; it is a spectacular show. Her body arches up off the gurney in a spasm of pain and pleasure. Then her hips drop sharply back down and the force of the spasm dents the steal of the gurney surface. Faith jerks her torso up and forward and then the first gasp of air is taken on Faith's new start in life. A long sharp inhale of air, a choking sob of release. One usually doesn't realize how precious air is until it is missing. The sheet that had covered her body slides to the side and reveals her naked form as she writhes in pain. The first time is always the most painful. Coughing and gasping for breath Faith opens her eyes to see neither Heaven nor Hell, but something to her that is completely unexpected. 

Taking in her surroundings in one quick feral glance and calming her breathing she slides off the dented gurney letting the sheet drop to the floor. Stalking across the room to a counter inset with drawers she jerks them open one at a time, breaking locks when necessary, searching for a weapon. Finding a likely looking knife that appears sharp enough, she then looks around for some cloths. **Gotta keep the priorities strait girl.** The raven-haired slayer mutters some obscenities under her breath as she fails to see anything in the morgue that would pass for clothing besides the sheets. Since the toga look went out a few eons ago, Faith opens the door to the hallway slowly and silently and peeks outside. Seeing the door across the hall marked "Locker Room" she figures it must be her lucky day. Relatively speaking.

Dressed soon enough in a green T-shirt, that is a few sizes to large, but tucked into a pair of blue jeans a tad to small in the hips and with one size to big work boots Faith feels up to the walk through he halls. Faith, with a morbid chuckle pockets her toe tag as well as over $600 that she found (stole) in the various lockers, and putting the knife in her back pocket, makes her way out of the hospital. It is a ridiculously easy feat to escape from a hospital morgue at 3:30 in the morning. There was only one person in the halls and that was an intern getting a snack at a vending machine.

Once safely outside the hospital Faith flags down a cab after a few minutes and she is soon on her way to the only person in L.A. that she thinks would be even willing to help her figure out what the hell is going on. Besides he's the only one she knows here.

~~~~

"That is, he might help if was friggin here." Faith mutters to herself as she searches the Hotel Hyperion. Everything was locked up tighter then a maiden's chastity belt, it is a good thing she remembers where Angel said he kept the spare keys. Funny the things they ended up talking about on his monthly visits. Although she hadn't heard from Soulboy in the last 3 months, ever since he came to tell her that B was dead. She had already known of course, had known the moment that B had taken her dive, her dreams were haunted by the vision of the Gateway and B's fall. She hadn't gotten a good nights rest in months, up until a few nights ago, and then the nightmares stopped.

Finally she finds a clue in the last place she would have looked, the front counter. Snorting in disgust at her lack of forethought she reads the note.

__

Gunn,

Wes, Cordy, Fred and I are on our way to Sunnydale.  
Something's come up and Giles called us in to help.  
If you need to contact us, call my cellphone or the Magic Box.

A

"Who's the fuck is Fred?" Putting the note back on the counter Faith scratches her nose in thought. "Ah Hell, I didn't want to go back to SunnyD this soon. The gang'll fuckin' lynch me."

Deciding that putting it off till tomorrow... or later today, she thinks as she looks at the clock over the counter wouldn't be so bad. Faith turns and head's to Angel's bedroom to get some shuteye. Searching the place earlier showed it had the most comfy bed. Stripping off her 'borrowed' cloths Faith slides naked in-between the silk sheets with a sigh of pleasure. It has been 3 years since she has last slept in a comfortable bed, and she intends to indulge herself and sleep in late. With a smile on her lips Faith snuggles deeper into the sheets and slips off into dreamland, her mind avoiding any questions about the strange things that had happened to her tonight and just luxuriating in the decadent feel of silk.

~~~~

After waking up at 5 in the evening. Faith decide that she needed some decent cloths. Searching through both Angels and Cordy's closets Faith had found an outfit that she wasn't ashamed to be seen in public with. A black long sleeved formfitting pullover with tribal designs down both arms, black cargo jeans that were snug but allowed her full range of movement and a nice pair of steel-toed combat boots. Shirt and pants came from Cordy and the boots from Angel. **Good thing I have big feet** Faith thinks. **All of C's shoes had three inch heels, no fucking way could I fight in those. Never did figure out how B could were 'um on patrol.** 

Like a child on Christmas morn, Faith went through Angels weapon stash to find some gear. Looking in a drawer in one of Angel's closets she found something that made her heart race in glee. A shoulder holster, complete with one 9mm Browning Automatic and one combat knife under the right arm; just like Rambo's. She always liked that movie, the sequels sucked, but the first one was wicked cool. After a few adjustments it fit like a dream, snug and easily drawn. Then another knife in her boots and finally a black leather biker jacket with sheathes for six stakes, three on either side. 

Finally feeling fully dressed again for the first time in 2 years Faith sits in the foyer of the hotel trying to figure out a way to get to SunnyD. A taxi is out of the question, would cost too much. The bus? No, the Council probably knows by now that her corpse was not in the morgue and will most likely have it under surveillance. Train's prolly also a no-no as well, same reasons. As she sits there pondering her predicament, a slow grin spreads across her features as she remembers a conversation with Angel about one of Wesley's new obsessions. Motorcycles. Seems he and his rich girlfriend liked going cruising. The thought of Wesley on a motorcycle just boggles Faiths mind, but motorcycles are the only form of motor vehicle transportation she actually knows anything about. One of her few fond memories of her fuck of a father. Since probably took Angel's convertible that means it should be around here someplace.

Bounding up the stairs to Wes's room she searches it again and finds a pair of riding gloves and a full faced helmet. But no keys. **Damnit,** Faith thinks to herself **I really do not want a crash course in motorcycle hot-wiring today.** Sighing in resignation she heads down to the garage and as she is opening the door she spots a pegboard to the right of the garage door that has a set of keys on a Harley-Davidson keychain. Snagging them with a grin she heads into the garage and stops dead in her tracks.

"Oh my God..." Faith stops breathing for a second at the beautiful sight before her. A Midnight blue and chrome Harley-Davidson soft tail. Faith would have creamed her panties, if she had been wearing any.

With an excited grin on her face Faith says, "Wes is SO not getting this back!" Grabbing the garage door opener off the table next to the door and laughing in pure happiness Faith straddles the bike and pulls her hair back in a pony tail and stuffs it down the back of her coat. Pulling on her gloves and helmet Faith hits the garage door opener and starts up the bike. 

Faith purrs as the powerful bike begins to rumble between her thighs. Once outside the hotel garage she closes the door and stuffing the opener in her pocket Faith puts the bike into gear and leaves the City of Angels behind her without a backward glance.

~~~~

**_TBC...   
  
DaBear_**


	2. Fears, Feelings and Faith

Something in Common Part II: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction 

See Part one for disclaimers.

~~~~

The drive up I-5 from LA to Sunnydale takes roughly 2 hours if you follow the posted speed limit. Faith made it in little over one, completely ignoring the posted speed limit. As she pulls off the highway and roars by the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign the sun is setting over her shoulder in a wondrous riot of colors. 

She only has a vague idea where the new Scooby Gangs HQ was , the Magic Box; then again it's a small town, shouldn't be to hard to find. After driving around downtown for fifteen minutes aimlessly she spots Angels convertible parked in front of a small shop. As Faith drives by she can barely make out the sign hanging in the window that says "The Magic Box".

**Not up on the advertising thing are ya G-Man?** As she pulls up past the shop her 'spidey-sense' catches 6 different paranormal auras inside the shop. "Six?" Faith says out loud trying to see in through the windows. "That can't be right." She can pick up two vampires, two witches, what feels like another slayer and... something else, nothing she's ever felt before though, she'd remember that tingling, buzzing sensation in the back of her head she was sure.

She's gotten a lot better at using her super-natural radar over the last 2 years. In prison there were seven different individuals that had shown up on her slayer 6th sense. Six were cons and one was a screw. The screw, or guard, introduced himself on the third day of her incarceration. Seems he is a half-breed, mother was a demon of some sort and his father was human. He knew what Faith was and didn't want any issues, so he introduced himself and explained that he'd keep an eye out for her and he'd help her out if he could, as long as she doesn't mess up any of the guards.

As a deal it worked out rather well, she didn't give the guards grief and they left her pretty much to herself.

Out of the six cons that showed up on her radar one was a witch and the other five had various levels of demon blood in them. They gave her something to do, in her spare time when she wasn't working out with the weights or in the library getting her GED, she spent her time tracking their movements in her head.

It proved useful as one night a demon of some sort came up from the lower levels. She convinced Tom, the guard, to let her out that night and she had a grand old time chasing that beastie through the lower levels of the prison, before trapping it in the boiler room and getting to work on some of her pent up aggravation. Tom made sure she was in her cell by wake up and everything was cool.

So she was sure that it was a slayer presence she felt, and that confused her, confused her more then the unknown one. If the Council had tried to cancel her ticket and there WAS another slayer around then she was gonna be mighty fuckin' pissed, reformation or not, some heads were gonna fuckin' roll if that was the case. She hadn't changed THAT much, damnit. She can understand the Council trying to kill her if there was no new slayer, but if there was... 

Reaching the next cross street after the shop Faith pulls a left and quickly swings the motorcycle around and into a parking space just past the lip of a building, so as not to be seen from the shop. Backing the bike in so that if she needs to head out in a hurry she doesn't have to turn the bike, Faith removes the helmet and gloves and getting off the bike she places the gloves in the helmet and straps the helmet to the bike. Walking to the corner she leans up against the wall in the gathering darkness and watches the front of the Magic Box, thinking of how she is going to do this.

The ride up had given Faith time to wonder how the gang was going to react to her being back in SunnyD again. She sincerely doubts that it's going to be a happy reunion.

**Fuck, none of them died,** Faith thinks to herself. **I had the means and plenty of opportunity. I mean I could have slit Willows throat when we had her at the City Hall.** Faith thinks. **That arrow could have just as easily had been aimed at Angels heart. Instant Kill, no slow death like the mayor wanted. Buffy could have walked through her door to a slug of 12 gauge; I kept a damn shotgun under the couch, after all. I never even really hurt any of them. Physically anyway... Well except Xander...**

**I mean, what the hell was he thinking coming to my room that night? Did he think that one session of mattress tag gave him the right to butt into my life? Come on, we weren't exactly friends or anything,** Faith scoffs to herself. **It was just one time and he acts as if it gave him some right to treat me like...**

**A friend, never really had friends before,** Faith thinks. **I've had people. People that she could hang with. People that she could screw. People that wouldn't give her grief. People that wouldn't give a damn if she disappeared off the face of the planet.** She had really no idea on how to react to a genuine helping hand. Friendship confused her. Always before there had been strings attached to offers of help, tit for tat, sometimes literally. No one had just been her friend.

She can't forgive herself for what she did to him, which was one of the reasons she had avoided a contact with him during her days as an assassin for the Mayor. Red, Red she could really give a rat's ass about. They had never really gotten along, with them seeming to have to compete for Buffy's attention. B, well her relationship with B was a hot and cold one. When Faith and B were hot, they clicked. It was magic. They could do no wrong. Everything worked; they were the Chosen Two. But when Buffy's attention went cold... Faith was miserable, a slut, a failure. No matter what she did it wasn't good enough for B. It reminded her too much of her foster mother's attentions. 

Xander though... his reactions to her hadn't been confusing at first. When she had first gotten to Sunnydale his reaction was the same as every other male she had ever met. A healthy dose of lust mixed with a little bit of awe. She was comfortable with that. She knew how to handle that. But after the deal with Kakistos his actions altered. He made sure she was always included in the conversations, interjecting a humorous comment to her when it was obvious that every one was talking about things that she wasn't involved in, school and home lives for example. One time when B and Cordy were talking about what they where going to wear to the Bronze he saw the look that passed over her face when they left without asking her to go, and invited her. Of course she said no, she didn't want his pity. Now she sees that it wasn't pity.

Little things like that have been surfacing more and more in her mind these last 2 years. Where he tried to involve her in the everyday lives of the Scooby's. He was trying to extend his hand to her in friendship and she kept him at arm length because she had never had a friend before. Let alone a male friend. Not a real one anyway, they had always tried to get in her pants, Xander never tried to do that. She practically raped him and then threw him out in the cold in his boxers, but he didn't say anything to the others, no bragging. Nothing. And he still acted the same towards her, not bringing it up, not trying for seconds. That had really thrown her for a loop.

So that night, when he came to her motel room, when he said they had a connection... she just flipped. She wanted him out of her life, wanted to stop the confusion. Wanted to prove that she didn't need or want his friendship. Just wanted to make it all go away, damnit. And it did. For a while anyway, being evil is so freeing if you let it.

But in an instant the world came crashing down around her. Just like it always did.

That night up on the balcony, she knew the instant that it happened that the knife wound wouldn't finish the job, she felt her healing factor take it and run and she knew that if she survived this fight, she'd be right as rain in within a few days. And she was so tired... so tired of everything. So she jumped. A three story fall into the back of a truck. That's the last memory she has before she woke up eight months later in the coma ward of Sunnydale General.

**Can't even kill myself right,** Faith thinks morosely to herself.

~~~~

**_TBC...   
  
DaBear_**


	3. Say "Hello" Faith

Something in Common Part III: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction 

See Part one for disclaimers.

~~~~

Shaking herself out of her reverie Faith watches as the front door of the Magic Box opens and someone steps out into the cool night air. Due to the positioning of the lights around the shop and on the street the figures face is cloaked in darkness. It's tall though, roughly 6 foot, obviously male, but a lot bulkier then anyone that Faith knows in the Scooby Gang. Unless it's Riley, but she remembers Soulboy saying that he had been shipped off to South America somewhere. "Crap, he's the last person I want to see right now." Faith says to herself as she watches the figure step into the light.

It's Xander.

"Damn," Faith mutters under her breath. "The boy has put on some muscles." Unconsciously she licks her lips lasciviously while watching as Xander looks up and down the street as if looking for someone.

Hiding behind the corner of her building, Faith watches Xander step out into the empty street and turn towards her position. She watches as he walks slowly towards her, muttering to himself all the while. As he gets about halfway across the street she begins to pick up what he's saying. Slayer senses, gotta love 'um. "Now is not the time for this," Xander is saying. "I have enough bullshit happening right now, what with those demon-bikers and Willow going all Witch-Fu on us. Not to mention... Fuck, I do NOT need this right now. That's three in the last year. Maybe I can just Spike to... Nah if he can't hurt me he couldn't hurt them either. Fuck."

Xander reaches under his jacket and Faiths eyes widen as he pulls out a large automatic pistol. "What the fuck? Why is he carrying a gun?" Faith asks herself. Then again, as she watches Xander, more interesting to her is that the instant the gun leaves the holster Xanders whole demeanor changes. Gone is the class clown, gone is the lovable goof with the slightly clumsy gait. In his place is a well oiled machine, moving smoothly across the street, graceful as a hunting cat, and just as quiet.

Strangly, Faith can feel the tingling sensation that represents the unknown paranormal in her head increase as Xander gets closer. Realizing that it is Xander that is making her head tingle like never before Faith watches as he stalks across the street like he is a cat on the hunt.

Deciding to reveal herself before Xand accidentally tries to ventilate her, at least she hopes it would be on accident, Faith steps out of the shadows as he reaches her side of the street. Believing that the best defense is a strong offense, Faith smirks at her former lover and says, "Damn, boy toy you grew some muscles." and then with an appreciative grin on her face she slowly looks him up and down, "Very nice. But," and with a gesture towards the automatic in his hand "What's with the hand cannon?" 

Following her unveiling and opening salvo Xander just stops dead in his tracks on the sidewalk, drops his hands to his side and with a stunned look on his face, asks in a disbelieving voice "Faith?"

Faith replies "Yep, it's me." Shaking her head. "The Council sent me a 'Get out of Jail Free' card. Unfortunately it came with its very own built in assassin. So since the Boys in Tweed decided to punch my ticket before I was finished with the ride I thought that I would head out to some old haunts, ya know? Look up some old friends." She says with a smile.

Xander just stands there and repeats himself in that same stunned tone of voice. "Faith?"

Chuckling at his pole-axed expression Faith saunters up to Xander with a sway to her hips and a twinkle in her eye. Smiling up at him Faith comments in a husky voice, "I had forgotten how cute that bemused look is on you." Deciding that it was now or never, since she has him alone away from the rest of the gang, Faith acts on feelings that have been plaguing her for the last year and a half. Reaching up she wraps her arms around Xanders neck and pulls him down into a kiss. A kiss different then any other Faith had ever given. It was not a kiss fueled by lust, but one fueled by need, need for warmth, need for love, need for understanding and forgiveness. After a few seconds with no response from Xander Faith is beginning to regret making such an aggressive approach towards her feelings towards the dark-haired man that had come to mean so much to her while she was locked away. Faith is about to pull back and apologize, close to tears, until Xander starts to return her embrace. He wraps one arm around her waist and his other hand creeps up her back to lightly cup the back of her head. Holding her head in place while he deepens the kiss. It was a kiss softer, more caring and intimate then any she had ever known. A kiss filled with promise and love. It was a kiss that she had never expected to ever receive.

After an amount of time passes that neither one would have been able to gauge Xander steps back away from Faith and with a grin makes the gun disappear under his jacket as seamlessly as he made it appear earlier. He then reaches out and grabs Faith in a huge bear hug. Lifting her up into the air with ease and starts spinning her around in place laughing like a loon. "Damn Faith, its good to see you again. I was just thinking of you and here you are. Ask and ye shall receive, huh?"

"You've been thinking of me?" Faith says, wrapping her arms around his neck and still hanging a good foot in the air she whispers in his ear huskily "Late at night, dreaming about me and my sugar and spice, ehh?" Grinning fit to make a Cheshire Cat jealous Faith leans her forehead against Xanders "I gotta admit that that was the welcome I was hoping for." Leaning in she bites his lip playfully, then leans back and with a sudden serious expression to her face she looks into his eyes and says "Not the response I was expecting though."

With a frown Xander replies, "What? You want me to act all hurt and say "Bad Faith, Bad?" I just don't see any reason too." Putting Faith down but keeping his hands on her hips he continues "I had a lot of time to think about you over the last few months. What you did and the reasons why. Ever since Anya..." With a grimace he stops and shaking his head continues without finishing that thought out loud. "I honestly have to say that my night with you was one of the best in my life," chuckling he smiles and says "Also happens to be the worst, but I won't go there right now." Bringing up one hand to cup her chin he looks into her eyes and says, "What's with the sudden display of affection anyway? Not that I am complaining mind you. But I am curious."

"I had time to think inside. It's all there really is to do, that and work out. Hell, I wouldn't even call it working out, I couldn't push myself without giving away that something was odd about me. So I thought... a lot. I had time to think on all the people in my life and how I let them down. I thought about the Mayor, B, my Watcher... you." Shy for the first time in years she said that last while looking at the ground. "Over the last year it was mostly about you. How everyone seemed to accept the mask I had up except you. How you were the only one that seemed to want to get to know me. Not the Slayer, not the slut. Me." Leaning her forehead against Xanders chest she continues, "B seemed to only want me around when she needed some time off from slaying, like I was a relief pitcher or a substitute slayer. Good enough for now, but don't worry the Real Slayer will be back shortly, ya know?" Even though Xander wants to say something about that, he has to be brutally honest with himself and admit she was right. That was the way Buffy had treated her. "The Mayor, I thought that he cared about me, ya know? While in prison though it struck me, like a fuckin' thunderbolt. He kept me like he would a damn dog." There is so much obvious pain in her voice that Xander pulls Faith tighter into his embrase, trying to ward off all the bad things hiding in her mind. "Take care of it, give it someplace to sleep and something to eat and it will love you, and I did, I fuckin' loved him. He must have known what the cure for the poison was, he must have known what B would do. Hell, it's the same thing I would have done. With only two slayers it was better then even odds that I would be the one drained for the cure. He was willing to take those risks to take Buffy outta the picture, he gambled with my life and didn't even fuckin' tell me."

With a frown she finishes, heart to hearts never having been her forte. "I was doing ok in prison, I think that I was working towards figuring out what was important. And then the Council had to butt their tweed covered asses into my little world and fuck it six ways from Sunday. A five story fall is not a way to start out a morning lemme tell ya."

"Youch, five stories?"

"Yeah, with that and the poison they gave me to make me all weak, lets just say my morning sucked more the usual, and you know I ain't a morning person."

"Well, I am damn happy to see you, whatever the circumstances. Plus, with the shit-storm of demons and vamps coming down on our asses right now it is of the good that you are here." Making a stakeing motion with his hand "The gang could use your assist, we're getting the shit beat outta us. We've been short a functional Slayer for far to long."

Chuckling at Xander Faith replies "You didn't used to swear this much." With a frown Faith continues, "I really have to talk to Giles and Wes, the research twins. I am hoping they have something in their books or scrolls that will explain how it is that I not only survived being poisoned and thrown from a 5th story walkway, but that I came through it with out a scratch." And then thinking on the last thing he said she asks, "Functional?"

"Well, talking to G-man is going to be a bit of a problem, unless you call England. He flew home last week. And Wes... well he isn't going to much help on the matter of your miraculous survival. When exactly did all this happen with the Council?"

Looking at Xander curiously Faith answers, "Ya mean the whole not being dead thing? Late last night around 11, I woke up in the morgue around 3:30 this morning. Why?"

Looking up into the sky at stars he can't see he asks Faith a question while pointedly not looking at her, "You can feel me in your head can't you?"

Faith nods and says"I was gonna ask you about that. But, you pulled a gun on me and then we got all hot and heavy." Faith says with an evil looking grin and a bump of her hips.

"So that's new? You haven't picked me up on your Slay-dar before?"

With a smirk and a raised eyebrow Faith just looks at Xander. "Slay-dar?"

"Best I could come up with on short notice." Xander shrugs apologetically.

"Come up with something else, cuz that sucked. And No, I haven't had you show up before now."

Releasing Faith's waist Xander leans up against a blue and black Dodge Ramcharger. Crossing his arms he looks at Faith a little pensively and asks "And you have never shown up on mine."

Walking over to Xander she leans her side against the Dodge next to him and looks Xander in the eye. "Yours? Your what?"

Sighing Xander stands up strait and reaches into his jeans pocket. Pulling out a set of car keys he turns around and unlocks the door of the Dodge they were leaning against. Opening the passenger door he says, "Hop in, I told the gang I was going for pizza, if I come back without any they'll probably kill me." Walking around to the drivers side he opens the door that Faith had unlocked from the inside for him.

"Nice truck. Now, when did you get your own set of magic antennae?"

Xander bursts out laughing. 

Seeing the look Faith is giving him Xander tries to explain between his fits of giggles. "Sorry, when you said that I just got a picture in my head from "My Favorite Martian," ya know? The guy with the bent antennae and the ice cream..." When Faith just gave him a look, Xander shrugged and muttered. "Guess you had to have been there."

Faith just laughs and says, "You said that I was already in there stud. Now answer the damned question."

Sobering up quickly Xander starts up the truck and pulls out into the street. Headed off across town Xander stays quite for a minute then says, "One night right after the whole She-Mantis thing... 

~~~~

**_TBC...   
  
DaBear_**


	4. Leggo my Ego

Something in Common Part IV: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction 

See Part one for disclaimers.

~~~~

**~~~~  
Flashback  
~~~~**

**Harris Household  
Sunnydale, CA  
March 27, 1997  
23:12 PST**

Xander's room is in disarray as usual. He would tell you there is an underlying order to the chaos, that pile over there is clean... and that one over there is dirty, or maybe vice versa. Xander at the moment is not thinking about the chaos that is his room though. His thoughts are on other matters. On other people, truth be told. In specific two people. Buffy Summers and Natalie French. One that won't notice him due to his being "one of the girls" and the others interest turning out to be rather predatory in nature. Well, not rather more like extremely, but that's not the point. The point is, that having an attractive female try to mate with you and then kill you isn't bad enough, but having her be a bug... Add to that the fact that she only goes after virgins and his rather fragile male ego is just a tad bit bruised.

Even knowing for a fact that Blayne was nothing more then hot air didn't seem to comfort him. He feels so stupid, after his little speech that maybe someone finding him attractive wasn't so strange, and then the Hellmouth had to go and make her a flesh eating giant insect. Wow! His life isn't whacked, no.

Notice the sarcasm.

Looking up at the clock on his desk he sees that it is a little after 11 at night. He had skipped school today to try to think, to figure out what was up with him and his joke of a life. He is starting to come to the realization that he had spent the whole day in his room staring at the walls without coming to any revelations about his life, other then the fact that it sucked. Anyone could tell you that, though. And with out spending 16 hours thinking about it.

Standing up Xander begins to pace across his room, having too much nervous energy after sitting all day. Finally coming to a decision, he stalks across the room and grabs his jacket off the chair, putting a stake in one pocket and a cross in the other he leaves his room and goes downstairs. Spotting his father still awake in the family room on the couch watching TV, Xander turns and heads to the kitchen and exits the house via the back door and walks into the night.

~~~~

Now that he knew about the nightlife in Sunnydale spotting the vampires is easy, astonishing him that he had never noticed them before. Then again no one was ever going to call him Mr. Observant, at the best of times. Finding the leeches was easy, finding one alone was another matter. His plan was to find one vamp and stake it. Just one. All on his own. No Buffy to back him up. Thus proving to himself that he is a man... and giving him a much needed ego boost.

He decided against going to the Bronze, not wanting to run into Buffy or Willow and opted instead for the park. Hopping the fence into the park was easy, it seems he always was more athletic when no one else was around to see it. Once over the fence Xander takes out the stake and cross and heads off into the park looking for some stress management.

Within the first five minutes he had found his target. One lone vamp, obviously newly risen. He still had dirt on his jacket for crying out loud. Sneaking up on him was as simple as pie. One thrust and the newly risen vampire was gone. With a flippant attitude Xander jokes, "Ashes to ashes / Dust to dust. Now that wasn't so hard. I wonder what all the fuss is about."

The grin is wiped of Xanders face as a hand grips his neck from behind and lifts him bodily into the air. It feels as if a steel band had wrapped around his neck, slowly squeezing the air from his body. A low, gravely voice comes from behind Xander, the words seemingly revertibrating up from the depths of Hell itself. "Filthy human, that was one of mine. With a slayer in town the Master demands more and more warriors be made. How am I supposed to keep up with his demands if you stupid bloodbags keep killing them, huh?" The hand releases Xanders neck and he falls over a foot to the ground. His knees failing him he collapses to the ground coughing. "You're a little scrawny, but I guess you'll have to do for a replacement."

Looking up from the ground Xander finds himself surrounded by five vamps in full game face. The one speaking is almost as large as Luke, standing at 6'4" with shaggy brown hair and looking as if Hell's Angels were initiating demons now. Leather jacket, jeans, black leather chaps and steel toed boots all combine to make the vampire truly frightening to behold. Chains and spikes festoon his jacket and a tattoo of a spider web is prominent on his left cheek. The other four are your regular mis-match of business suits and high school kids. Leering down at him, the leader casually brings his foot back and kicks Xander in the side, full force. Hearing his ribs snap with a sickening _crunch_, Xander curls into a ball to try and protect his head as the other four vamps begin kicking him as well.

"Lovely thing about bringing a new vampire into the world..." Begins the leather clad vamp as he stomps on Xanders lower leg, breaking both bones and causing Xander to scream out in agony. "No matter the damage done to the body before the change, once it rises there are no wounds." Chuckling as he hears more and more bones snap and break as the five vampires stomp and kick the boy. "So you are tonight's entertainment bloodbag. Once you are too broken to play with anymore, we'll drain you and leave you to rise. Hope your soul is in order, boy." The vamp may have said more, but Xander didn't hear it. One of the permanent teenagers had kicked him in the temple with a steel toed boot, rendering Xander unconscious.

~~~~

Xander wakes up to pain beyond any that he had ever experienced, a ripping, tearing pain; a pain felt in every fiber of his being. Every muscle, bone and tendon in his body feels as if it had been ripped out, torn to shreds and reassembled with a few pieces missing. He is unable to focus his mind beyond the pain at first, the agony coming from every point in his body. Trying to open his eyes takes a major effort of will, especially considering what was happening to him the last time that he was conscious. After an eternity, his vision swims into focus and he finds himself staring at his chest. Staring at his very bare chest. Staring at his very bare and very bloody chest. Glancing at the ground he sees his shirt had been torn off and it was a few feet away lying in the dirt. **Funny I seem to be standing up...** Xander thinks to himself. **Which is strange since I can't feel anything below my waist.**

Then the tearing pain in his arms and shoulders seems to hit his brain full force and overrides the other aches, rips and tears coursing his nervous system. The pain causing him to tilt his head painfully to the side to try and see his hands. They are not at his side, though. Tilting his head even further he finds his shoulder, and then following it he sees his arm stretched out to his side, and... At first his mind can't determine what he is seeing... or maybe won't determine is the better way to say it.

**That's a stake. That's MY stake. That's my arm... with a stake in it. SHIT!** Xanders' head whips around to stare at his other arm, ignoring the streaming agony in his neck. It's there. It's there and it is impaled as well, not with a stake though. With a rather nasty looking knife. Impaled through the wrist. Crucified to a tree in the park. **That's not good...**

"Ahhh, your awake! Good, I wouldn't want you to miss the next act in our little drama."

Xanders eyes slowly focus forward and onto the biker vamp standing not 2 feet from his crucified body. Chuckling at Xanders obvious disorientation the vampire steps forward and grabs Xander by the hair. Tilting the dark-haired boys head to the side he exposes Xanders neck to his hungry gaze.

"Welcome to the Family, m'boy." 

The unconsciousness brought on due to blood loss was a mercy to the young man. His agony disappeared and his thoughts became as calm and as quiet as a mountain lake. Xanders brown eyes close and his mind slips lightly into the welcome oblivion.

**~~~~  
End Flashback  
~~~~**

Xanders truck pulls up in front of the pizza parlor just as he is finishing up his narrative. Pulling into a parking spot in front of the parlor Xander stops the truck and turns off the ignition. Sitting back in his seat he stares out the front window and slowly rubs his hands up and down the steering wheel.

"That first death was truly the worst for me. Being beating and crucified isn't high on anyone's fun-o-meter I'm sure. But most people don't miraculously wake up the next morning remembering it all. Remember it all in every pain filled Technicolor instance." Xander observes with a dry chuckle.

~~~~

**_TBC...   
  
DaBear_**


	5. Something Wicked...

Something in Common Part V: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction 

See Part one for disclaimers.

~~~~

Xanders truck pulls up in front of the pizza parlor just as he is finishing up his narrative. Pulling into a parking spot in front of the parlor Xander stops the truck and turns off the ignition. Sitting back in his seat he stares out the front window and slowly rubs his hands up and down the steering wheel.

"That first death was truly the worst for me. Being beating and crucified isn't high on anyone's fun-o-meter I'm sure. But most people don't miraculously wake up the next morning remembering it all. Remember it all in every pain filled Technicolor instance." Xander observes with a dry chuckle.

"A five story fall wasn't all that high on my list of things to do yesterday either X. And what the fuck do you mean by 'first death'?" Faith asks incredulously, "You telling me that you've bit it more then once?! You're sure as shit not a Deadboy and you'd better not be doing the whole Ascension gig or I'm gonna kick your ass from here to Boston." She grimaces at Xander, "So what in the hell are you... what are WE... that we can take the kind of damage that a five story fall, being poisoned or being crucified can put out and then come back screaming for more huh?" Needless to say Faith was slightly agitated about the knuckleball life has thrown her way this time.

"That's a good question, Faith. I wish I had a damn answer." Running his hands through his hair and sighing, Xander continues. "I have about 3 pages worth of notes that I have been able to dredge up out of G-man's books over the last 6 years. **THREE PAGES!!**, that's it and most of it either contradictory or just out and out fucking vague. Most of the info that I _have_ got some confirmation about, has come from people that have tried to kill me. So you can imagine my lack of faith on its validity."

"I've lost track of how many times I've died, Faith." After a second he sighs to himself and then laughs bitterly "Nope, didn't work that time either." Laying his head on the steering wheel he continues on "I've died 32 times, Faith. You all always wondered how I could go out night after night, jumping in on all those fights and come out unscathed... The truth is I didn't." Tilting his head towards Faith he grimaces at her, "And I get to remember each time as vividly as if I was still there, the smells, the sounds the whole enchilada." Sighing again Xander leans back and crosses his arms across his chest. Frowning to himself more then her he says, "After the first couple of times that I died I started to seek out dangerous situations more and more, ya know. Trying to find my limits, what I could and could not come back from. Let's just say I was slightly suicidal at that point in my life, and leave it at that. For a while all I could think was that I was a freak, and that terrified me. I didn't tell anyone because I was afraid, of what I am not sure anymore, I mean being able to come back from the dead would be kind of useful, you'd think." Shaking his head Xander reveals something to Faith, "I still haven't told anyone. None of the gang know."

Faith looks at Xander with sympathy, "Because you have kept it from this long, you're afraid of what they'll think, huh? Afraid that they'll throw you out of they're little club?"

The surprise that he feels at her accurate portrayal of his feelings must have shown on his face as Faith laughs and says, "Like I said, time to think. Came to some interesting insights about myself and the rest of you." Opening the passenger door Faith hops out and turning back to Xander says, "Lets grab that pizza before the gang sends out search parties."

~~~~

**Motel 6  
Room 312  
Los Angeles, CA  
Octobeter 5, 2001 20:19 PDT**

It is a simple and clean room. One chair, two beds, a dresser with a TV/VCR. There are three doors in the room, one of which leads outside the others open to a closet and a small bathroom respectively. In the room there are three people two males and one female.

One man of medium height with neat brown hair is wearing gray suit pants, a white dress shirt and a black tie at his throat was sitting in the chair with a cellular phone to his ear in an obvious argument with someone at the other end. On the end table next to him is the suit jacket the he had taken off earlier. And leaning against the table is a sword, one of obvious craftsmanship. A rapier in type with a flaring cross-guard to protect the fingers made of fragile seeming filigree. Sitting there it exudes a sense of danger and menace, as if it was lying in wait for someone to unsheathe it and release it upon some unsuspecting foe. As strange as this may seem it not the most outstanding thing in the motel room.

The other male of the trio is lying on the bed and is very clearly not human. Standing up he would only be 4'3" tall. His skin is a pale red in color that may have been mistaken for a sunburn if not for scales that cover him as if he was related to a lizard or snake. The two curling rams horns coming from his forehead, or the forked tongue that would occasionally flicker forth to wet his lips as he watched a rerun of 'Baywatch' on the 15 inch television also gave lie to the idea he may have been human. The fact that he is wearing a Power Rangers T-shirt under a pair of Osh-Gosh B'gosh overalls and a pair of Kids Nikes' just adds to the surreal nature of the scene. His pockets bulge with bits and pieces, odds and ends. If one were to look at them one would see a collection of items any child may have in his possession. Pretty rocks that may have been picked up from a stream. Bits of twine that are colorful and seem to catch the eye. It would take a Practitioner of the Arts to notice the common theme to these items. If you take the pretty quartz crystal in his left front pocket and wet it with the blood of a stillborn girl it will allow the wielder to become invisible for a few hours. That little bit of pale green thread in his rear pocket is in actuality a bit of hair form a Gorgon and if you wrap that around this seeming innocent piece of twisted metal that he has in his bib pocket it will render the target paralyzed. All the bits and pieces, all the odds and ends are components for spells, spells of a most disturbing nature. Spells that the little demon called Visak finds most delightful, they cause pain, fear, death and most of all chaos. Well all of them except the squashed quarter that he found in the train yards, he just likes that little bit of flotsam, it's neat. 

The woman is sitting on a stool in front of the mirror in the bathroom, obviously just out of the shower and as naked as the day she was born. She is not a very imposing creature, frail-looking, pale and wan. Her long blond-white hair reaches her waist as she calmly brushes it out. Counting to herself softly with each stroke, a murmur of sound barely audible, yet somehow chilling all the same. Cold and deathly sounding is her voice like the winds from the north just before a blizzard it tells of pain and despair. Looking into the mirror and watching herself brush her hair her eyes are empty, there are no emotions showing there, no desires, no anything. Just seeming pale glittering pebbles set in her face to fill the void. Her eyes only show emotions when she lets her co-habitant lose, when the blue skinned ice-behemoth is set free to rip and tear, maim and slaughter. When it's strength and speed, its chill touch and rending claws are set free to act, then and only then does the pale creature called Lea show emotions. And they are all unholy.

"The contract clearly specifies death, Travers. It is not our problem if she gets up and walks away afterwards." The man, Wilhelm, argues into the cellular phone. "Well you failed to mention she was an Immortal. Yes an Immortal. You mean you actually did not know? Oh, you know as well as I what happens when a Slayer becomes one of us. Like I said before the contract specified death, she died. If you want to talk about Final Death you will have to renegotiate with the Elders. I know that the reason behind the contract was to free up the Slayer essence to the next Chosen, but that was not actually in the contract, all it said was... Yes I know that the essence does not move on from an Immortal Slayer. They keep it till Final Death. Yes I know that. Like I said you would have to renegotiate with the Elders. No, I will not do that. I can not take a contract on myself and neither will my compatriots. If I take her head it will incinerate me on the spot and lay waste to a two-mile radius. No, Travers you have to speak to the Elders. Goodbye."

Flipping the cellular phone closed Wilhelm puts it on top of his suit jacket and looks over to Visak who has turned off the TV and is sitting up on the bed looking at the German Immortal. "The fool actually did not know she was pre-Immortal." Seeing Visak's questioning look he explains. "The Quickining links with the Slayer Essence so if her head is taken by an immortal, it needs to be by another Immortal that could also have been a Slayer. Otherwise the power overloads and basically makes a miniature nuclear explosion. Last time that happened was in the 1200's and there is still an area in the Black Woods that won't grow." Shaking his head at the stupidity of the Watcher's Council Wilhelm stands up and stretches lithely. "The council has made it a habit to kill all Immortals that have the possibility to become Slayers, or vice versa, so that their precious Slayer Essence doesn't get trapped in one host for too long." Stalking to the bathroom he looks in at Lea as she reaches 1,000 strokes and puts down the brush. "Did you hear all of that Lea?"

"Yes, Wilhelm." Replies the wraith like female. "She is Immortal and the Council did not know. We were given poor information, but I still feel that I should be allowed to finish the kill. I will just make sure to rip off her head this time." The blond then stands up and walking over to the doorway she reaches up and gets a robe off the hook behind the door. Sliding into the pale blue terry cloth robe that reaches to her ankles she steps past Wilhelm and walks into the main room and settles herself onto the bed that Visak is not on.

"You will most likely get the chance to do so. If Travers does contact the Elders and renegotiate the contract we will more probably be the ones to finish off the kill, since we are the only Triad in the western United States at the moment." Settling back into the chair Wilhelm gestures towards Visak. "He still has the necessary components to do the tracking spell so we will be able to find her when the Elders give us the say-so."

"Good, I would dislike it if we let one get away." Pulling back the covers to her bed Lea strips off the robe and sets it at the foot of the bed. Sliding beneath the covers Lea is asleep in an instant, her body slowing down and finally stops pretending that it is alive. Her breath comes to a gurgling stop and what little color she has drains from her skin.

Visak looks over towards Wilhelm after watching Lea stop breathing and says, "I still find that little bit of her fascinating. She just stops. I find it quite erotic."

Smirking at the little demon Wilhelm reaches over and shuts off the lamp plunging the room into darkness. "I am sure that she would just love to her you say that. Besides I believe that Necrophilia is still illegal in California, not sure mind you. They have many strange laws, but I believe that that one is still active."

"Wilhelm, my friend murder is a crime as well. Besides when has human law ever bothered me?"

~~~~

**_TBC...   
  
DaBear_**


	6. Comic Books and Super Heroes

Something in Common Part VI: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction 

See Part one for disclaimers.

~~~~

After placing their order with the guy at the counter, Mike, someone Xander vaguely remembers as being a year behind him in high school, Faith and Xander made their way over to a table that they, almost subconsciously, had both chosen after first walking in. It is up against the far wall of the pizzeria and has a good view of both the front entrance and the kitchen door. Both of the brunettes had maneuvered their chairs so that they were sitting with their backs to the wall. Faith had a clear field of view over the entire restaurant and Xander's field was only slightly impaired by a hanging potted plant. After they had sat down, Xander and Faith had simultaneously noticed their positioning in the room and of their chairs and Xander, after looking at Faith for a moment, laughs at their shared sense of caution and said, "Paranoid much? Us?"

"Just because your paranoid..." Faith begins

"...Doesn't mean they aren't after you." Xander finishes with a grin.

"You pretty much have to be paranoid on the inside Xan," Faith said with a small shrug. Then with a smirk on her face she says, "Besides I was paranoid _way_ before going to the joint." And with that being said she settles herself back in the chair and looks at Xander out of the corner of her eye. "You said earlier that your only corroborating information about... us, was from some people that had tried to off you? What's all that about?"

"'Corroborating'?" Xander asks with a smile "What, did you have a word of the day calendar in prison Faith?" Ignoring the finger she flipped his way Xander starts back into what little info he had on the situation. "Ok, besides your ravishing self, I have meet a grand total of three people that have set off my little proximity alert. The first time was at...

~~~~~  
Flashback  
~~~~

**The Bronze  
Sunnydale, CA  
November 8, 1997 21:05 PST**

The crowd at the Bronze was fairly large tonight. The milling crowd of High School and college students leaving little room for movement, unless you wanted to risk getting stepped on or slapped. Xander had gotten to the Bronze early enough to snatch a stool at the bar where he is sitting now, unwilling to move and risk losing the seat he was saving for Buffy. He absentmindedly sips from a glass of cola while waiting for the girls to show up and scans the crowd for vampires or other creatures of darkness, like Cordelia. Buffy said that she was going to make a quick sweep of the cemeteries before headed over to pick up Willow who was at the high school working on a computer project with Ms. Calendar. He hoped that Buffy was in a better mood tonight after taking out some of her aggression on the local night life, he and Willow had been trying to cheer Buffy up for the last week ever since Ford had blown into town with his whole vampire cult thing. She had been in a funk ever since and there just didn't seem to be much that he and the perky hacker could do to cheer her up. 

Looking up at the stage as the band starts up their second set for the evening he notices that it's the "Dingos ate my Baby" a local band that he had heard play here a few times and had liked, even if their sound was a little rough. They showed some promise. Although he never really had liked Devon he had to admit, they had some good songs.

Scanning the room again before looking up at the door for the girls, Xander casually reaches around to the small of his back as if to scratch himself and minutely adjusts the item under his shirt at his waist so that it stops digging at him. The metal had warmed up awhile ago, but in his mind it is still shockingly cold.

Ever since last months trip down Fantasy Boulevard, courtesy of Mr. Ethan Rayne Xander had been having some really weird urges. Urges he is pretty sure that come to him via his brief stint as Solder-Boy. The spell, mixed with the weird memory thing that he's had ever since that night last year in the park, lets him remember the whole of Halloween night and also all of the things that his alter-ego knew. His head had hurt for 2 weeks while the memories had sorted themselves out. It's still not all together finished, every once in a while he notices his friends giving him weird looks, well weirder then normal anyway, as something he says or does comes across as not-Xander.

Some of the strange urges he had been having he refused to give into, like his craving for a stogie. He used to hate the smell, but over the last few weeks he had been jonesing for a cigar something fierce. That and sometimes he had an overwhelming urge for a good shot of whisky. But he knew where that would lead him and he didn't want to turn into his father. Drunken Bastard.

Some urges though he had given into, like the urge to start saving money for 'rainy days'. He had always tried to save money, but never really had the will power to avoid buying comics or candy or whatever. But with his newfound memories he also got some of Solder-Boy's mannerisms and traits it seems. Saving money had been easy this past month, and he is surprised at how much he earned doing odd jobs for his neighbors, never really noticed before because it was spent almost before he had it.

But other urges, urges just a little darker in nature, had arisen also. Like never going anywhere unarmed. And he is not just thinking of the wooden stake that's in his back-pocket either. He is thinking of weapons just a tad bit more modern. Which of course leads him to the Glock 17 in a holster at the small of his back. It is a good sidearm, holding 17 rounds of 9mm Luger ammunition, 18 if you want to go all Rambo and chamber a round first. Also it is very lightweight only weighing in at 680 grams fully loaded, or about a pound and a half, due to its having a polymer (or plastic)frame. He had permanently borrowed the Glock from his Uncle Rory without his uncle knowing about it. Ok, ok he stole it.

He and his uncle used to go out to the police firing range, outside Sunnydale, about once a month to shoot and do the whole male bonding thing. It had been some of the more enjoyable moments of his life. His uncle was a better father to him then his real one; that is, he had been, up until his uncle had gone through a nasty divorce and basically buried his life in a bottle of rum, when Xander was fifteen, then Xander was pretty much on his own.

Xander had known where his uncle stored the weapons and had known the combo to the gun safe, and once his paranoia had grown to epic proportions, and he was jumping at shadows, he had gone and appropriated one of his uncle's 26 handguns. Also he had taken three different holsters for it, one underarm holster, a tactical holster like swat guys or MP's have and the one he is wearing now. That and 6 boxes of ammunition. Xander was pretty sure that Rory wouldn't notice the loss of the Glock or the equipment, since he had 3 others just like it, and judging from the dust in the safe he hadn't opened it in a year anyway.

Xander pretty much carried the gun everywhere now, if he didn't have it with him at all times he got all jittery and paranoid, jumping at shadows and getting snappish at people. So he basically had to carry it everywhere to calm himself down, even Willow had said something to him about how he seemed much more relaxed lately. He was always careful with it but he still had to take it to school with him, he hoped that he never got caught with it. If Snyder found out about it, he was sure to get expelled, probably face jail time, the way the little troll hated him. There were hundreds of good reasons not to carry the gun, yet he ignored them all and continued to take it everywhere. No good reason other then it made him feel better, just instinct on his part. 

Glancing down at his watch Xander frowns at the time he reads there and is starting to get concerned for his friends, when out of nowhere a headache comes on. His head feels as if it is about to explode, like someone had hit him in the forehead with a 5-pound sledgehammer. There is a tingling, buzzing sensation that rips through his head and tears a burning trail down along his spine to his stomach, which begins to roll and churn with impending nausea.

Feeling a hand on his shoulder Xander looks up to see a young man looking at him with a concerned expression on his face. Raising his voice to be heard over the din the young man says, "You need some help to get outside. Get some air." It was more of a command then a question, but Xander didn't feel like arguing at that and accepted the offer of the mans shoulder to lean on as he gets up and stumbles towards the door. Looking back to where he was sitting, Xander curses under his breath as someone from the football team took his stool that he was saving for Buffy. As they reach the side door to the Bronze, Xanders self-preservation instinct kicks in and as the young man helps Xander outside into the alley Xander stands up and away from the stranger. Taking a deep breath Xander straitens his shirt and surreptitiously checks his gun in case he needed to use it soon. The man was warm to the touch and seemed to have a pulse, so he wasn't a vampire, but there were other hunters out there and Xander wasn't feeling up to playing prey tonight.

"Thanks, I feel much better now." Lying through his teeth Xander starts to edge his way towards the mouth of the alley, as the side door has no outside doorknob. Ignoring the disquieting feelings rolling through his stomach Xander is about to bolt off down the alley when the man asks him a simple question.

"So your not curious at your sudden headache?" 

"Nah," Xander replies. "It was just to crowded. Heat got to me or something. Thanks for the assist, but I was waiting for some friends inside so I should, uh, go back there and... wait, yeah, thanks again." Xander says while backing away from the man. 

"When was your first death?" 

"My first dea... How did you... What? How did...? What are you talking about?" 

Grinning the man steps towards Xander and says, "A newbie huh? You truly have no idea what is going on. This is delicious." Reaching up and under his jacket the blond man pulled out a sword. A **_sword_** god-damnit. The light from over the door to the Bronze gleams brightly off the blade of the longsword that the freak in front of Xander just drew out of nowhere. It looks intimidating, that and real sharp. Looking at the sword Xander is pretty damn sure that it wouldn't have fit under the jacket without sticking out. "Let me explain so that your mind can know peace for these brief few moments before your death." Grinning at Xanders startled look the man continues, "My name is Michael Thacher and I was born in the Year of Our Lord 1538, in London, England. I am Immortal, as are you. And the only way to for us to truly die is to lose our heads, literally I mean, well the figuratively usually proceeds the literally so I guess it could be both." And as he finished his little dissertation he grins, bows and then charges at Xander with his sword raise. "There can be only one!" 

~~~~  
End Flashback  
~~~~

"Hey Harris, your pies are done." Mike the guy at the counter yells out interrupting Xanders storytelling.

Faith who had been listening raptly to Xander weave a tale of his first encounter with these so called Immortals, was sitting on the edge of her seat with her chin propped up in her hands and was giving Xander her total attention. That is, she was, up until Mike interrupted him. If looks could kill Mike would be down on the floor bleeding and convulsing from the glare Faith throws his way. Even from across the room he sees it and flinches. Chuckling at her Xander lightly slaps Faith on the shoulder and says, "Don't scare the kiddies, Faith." Getting up from the table Xander and Faith go over to the counter to pick up their order, five pizza pies and four 6-packs of soda. Faith gave Mike another glare and then picks up the sodas and tucks them into the crook of her left arm comfortably.

The two brunettes leave the pizzeria and head back over to the truck. "So?" Faith asks eagerly. "What happened next?" 

"Humm?" Xander asks as he looks up from the pizza he was sniffing. "Oh, I shot him." 

"You _shot_ him?" 

"Yep, two to the chest and one to the head." 

"And that killed him?" 

"No, not permanently. He woke up about three hours later. I had dragged him off before anyone from the Bronze came out asking about the gunshots. I knew how long it usually took me to come back from dying and was wondering if it held true for him as well." Opening the passenger door to the SUV Xander flips the seat forward and puts the pizzas on the floor in the back seat. Taking the sodas from Faith he put them in the back as well. "When he woke up I had him tied up in a warehouse near the Bronze and he started bitching and moaning about what I had done and it not being fair and all." Shaking his head Xander looks at Faith with an annoyed expression on his face. "He was going to chop my head off with a sword and he thought it unfair that I shot him." And in his best Bugs Bunny imitation Xander grins at Faint and says "What a maroon." Snorting at the stupidity of some people Xander flips the seat forward again and offers his hand to Faith to get up in the truck. 

As she is about to accept his hand, Faith's 'slay-dar', she likes the term even if it is a little hokey, kicks into high gear as seven vamp presence's enter her 'passive range', which is about a three block radius, her active range being near two miles. 

Looking at Xander she asks, "You got any stakes handy? We've got incoming." And nods up the street to where she can see the group of vamps walking. Glancing up the street Xander nods in confirmation and closing the passenger door he heads around to the rear of the Ramcharger and unlocks and lifts the tailgate to show Faith four large toolboxes and three duffel bags. Without saying anything he opens one of the toolboxes. Reaching in he looks at Faith and silently asks her how many she would need with a raised eyebrow. "Gimme seven just to be on the safe side, X-man." Nodding he hands her the desired number of stakes and starts to gather some for himself. 

While sheathing five of the stakes inside her jacket, Faith notices Xanders look as he sees her holstered gun, but he doesn't say anything. "Picked it up at Angels, the guy has more ordnance then anyone else I have ever seen, way more then G-man used to have." She says, just to stave off any doubts Xander has about her. She doesn't want X-man to start worrying that she is holding back info. She needs him. Needs him to trust her so that she can trust him. Life is getting too weird and she needs a rock, an anchor, someone that she can rely on no matter what. And the way to do that, supposedly, is to be honest. Not that she isn't usually brutally honest anyway, this time she is just going to make damn sure that nothing comes between her and Xander. Nothing. Sighing to herself, Faith scratches her nose while looking at Xander outfitting himself with stakes and holy water after nodding to her confession about the gun. There and then she admits to herself that love sucks. It is both the most wonderful thing that has happened to her and the most annoying. She is having problems knowing what to do, what to say. And that is so unlike her. **I mean fuck, while he was telling the story I wanted to crawl into his lap and friggin cuddle. Shit! That is not the girl I used to be.** 

Xander finishes his preparations and closes the tailgate on the SUV. Smirking at Faith as they walk up the street towards the vamps who are in turn walking towards them, Xander asks "What's the plan, Stan?"

" Full frontal?" She asks.

"Nudity?"

"Ahhh, no. Assault."

"Liked mine better." Xander says with a leer. 

Faith answers "So do I truthfully." Leering back at him she then shrugs and says. "Kill 'um all then go eat pizza?" 

Laughing at that Xander says, "That's a plan I can sink my teeth into." 

Faith just groans at his pun before smacking him on the arm. 

Both brunettes are still laughing as they come up to the advancing vampires. 

"Well, well, well lookie what we got here boys. Did anyone order take-out?" the vampire in front says with a leer as he morphs into his game-face. The other vampires laugh as they follow his lead and morph out. 

Stopping to stare at the vampires Faith says "Please don't tell me they are still using that old line X-Man." Faith turns to Xander and comments in a disbelieving tone. When he just shrugs apologetically with a lop-side grin, she grimaces and continues. "You'd think they could come up with something better then "Look at we got here." Jeeze and here I thought my first fight out of the clink was gonna be something special." 

Shaking her head in mock dismay Faith turns back to the vampires and while shrugging says "Let's get it on!" The seven vampires leap forward and bum rush Faith.

The shrug drops the stakes that she had hidden up her sleeves into her hands. Faith then crouches and lunges forward all in one smooth movement, staking the lead vamp with her left hand and quickly withdrawing the stake before it could crumble into dust with the startled vampire. Coming out of the lunge she plants her left foot on the pavement and spins to her left avoiding the second vamps head long rush. Completing the spin her right hand stake quickly impales and then jerks free from the vampire as he stumbles to the ground and explodes into dust. Continuing into a second spin she bends at the waist and her following leg sweeps up and around. Her roundhouse kick catches the third vampire in the ribs with a snapping of broken bones. With the combination of the speed of the attack and Faith's supernatural strength the vampire is sent flying over thirty feet across the street and head first into a brick wall. 

The next vampire seems to not know what is going on or just can't stop his rush as Faith uses the momentum of the two previous spins to go into a third. Tapping her foot on the ground to gain more momentum, her right leg sweeps up and around and her heel connects with the vampires neck, smoothly decapitates him. As he explodes into dust his follow up is subjected to a devastating foot sweep as Faith crouches down and sweeps her leg out once again. He does a sideways somersault in mid air as his feet are ripped out from underneath him with supernatural power. Coming back up from her crouch Faith seems to tire of her whirly-gig approach to vampire slaying and she dusts the vampire before he even has a chance to hit the ground. 

The last two vampires are just now reacting to the death of the first vampire, the death of the other three not having registering yet on their minds. Opening their mouths to roar a challenge they instead scream out as Faith's hands flicker forward and embed a stake in each of their unbeating hearts. 

Xanders mouth is hanging open at the display he just witnessed. Faith's movements are reminiscent of comic book heroes, 'The Flash' or 'Quicksilver', it's like they took a normal fight and over-clocked it, speeding it up past all sense of normalcy. All he sees is Faith charge in and 6 seemingly simultaneous explosions of dust and one vampire that rockets away from the fight to land head first against a brick wall across the street. The fight took a grand total of three seconds. 

"Great," he says "I get the memory of an elephant and she gets to be 'The Flash', I think that I got the short end of the stick here." Xander shakes his head ruefully as he trots across the street to stake the last vamp as it is moaning on the ground, looks like Faith had broken its spine with the roundhouse. 

Going back across the street he sees Faith frowning and pointing to each of the dust piles and making movements with her fingers as if replaying what had happened in her mind. Looking up as Xander stops next to her she asks "Why the hell did they just stand there and let me kill um? They didn't even fight back." 

Xander looks at Faith in disbelief, trying to figure out if she really doesn't know what she had just done. After a few seconds Xander comes to the realization that she doesn't have a clue as to why the vamps just seemed to stand there waiting for a stake. "Faith, you just tore into them like the Tasmanian Devil. You moved faster then anything I have ever seen, outside a cheesy sci-fi flick. I mean shit that fight lasted three seconds." 

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Faith, I am talking about you going after those vamps and within three seconds they were all dust bunnies. You moved like someone had hit your fast-forward button. Just 'POOF', I barely caught the fight at all, and only because of my so-called 'training' I got for Halloween and having watched Buffy fight more times then I can count allowed me to catch what I did." 

"So your saying I moved faster then normal? For a slayer?" 

"Hell yeah. Way faster. You ever catch that old TV show 'The Flash'? It was like that." 

"I take you can't do that?" 

"Ahhh, no. I mean I got a little faster after that night in the park. I could maybe have kept up with you or Buffy before. But now, no way." 

"You think whatever it is that makes us unkillable linked up with my... slayer essence or whatever, and that's why I'm all hyper-charged like?" 

"Maybe, that's as good an explanation as any I could think up." 

"We really need more damn info... What happened to that guy at the Bronze?" 

"It's a bit of a long story." 

Snorting at that thought Faith says sarcastically "He said 'Year of Our Lord 1538', I think that time is not all that big a deal to us anymore." 

"True," Xander concedes "Come on, lets get the pizza back before it gets cold."

Turning around the two Immortals return to the truck and the still warm pizza. Unlocking Faith's door in silence he holds it for her until she is seated. He walks around to the drivers side and opens the door after Faith had reached over and unlocked it and gets in and starts up the Dodge. 

Pulling out onto the street he looks over at Faith and sees her worried expression on her face and after a few seconds he asks softly "Do you want to meet them tonight? I mean we could meet them later, tomorrow maybe, after sorting some of this out and after I have time to explain what little I do know." 

Looking up and seeing Xanders concerned expression Faith nods her head in agreement and says "Maybe later is better. I am still a little weirded out about what just occurred." 

Pulling up in-front of the Magic Box Xander stops the vehicle and reaches into the backseat, he then hands Faith a pizza and a six-pack of Coke. Grinning at her he says "I remember how you get after a fight. Take one of these and..." Reaching forward under the dash he pulls out a magnetic key holder and hands the keys to Faith. "You remember where Lakeview Cemetery is?" Seeing her nod Xander says, "I live in the Emerson Apartments next to that on Harrison Street. Apartment 232. Go ahead and go over there and eat, drink and crash. I am gonna be here for a few more hours. Take the bed, the couch tends to leave one with a few to many bends in the morning." 

Looking at the pizza Faith grins up at Xander from under her fall of hair and with a husky, sultry tone that leaves his knees weak and... other parts hard, asks "Well this will take care of half of my problems stud, and when you getting home to take care of the other?" Faith asks with a leer. 

"The couch." 

"The couch?" 

"Umm, yeah I was... planning on sleeping on the couch tonight." 

Ignoring Faiths pout he gets out of the Dodge and after she gets out as well he walks her over to her Harley. Bending over he kisses Faith gently on the lips and says "Seeya." Before walking back to the Dodge to get the rest of the food and soda, and heads into the shop. 

Faith smirks to herself and says quietly, "Xand luv, there is no way in hell you are sleeping on the couch tonight." 

~~~~

**Motel 6  
Room 312  
Los Angeles, CA**

The cellular phone breaks the silence of the room. Without a light being turned on the phone is quickly answered by Wilhelm. After listening for a few seconds he replys with a differential "Yes Elder." Flipping the cellular phone closed he reaches over and turns on the light. 

Shaking Visak roughly to wake up the little demon, Wilhelm then heads over to the other bed and gently wakes Lea. "Looks like you got your desire Lea. The contract was renewed." 

~~~~

**_TBC...   
  
DaBear_**


	7. Memory Lane

Something in Common Part VII: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction 

See Part one for disclaimers.

~~~~

**The Magic Box  
Sunnydale, CA  
October 5, 2001 22:06 PDT**

As Xander pushes open the door to the Magic Box the roar of Faith's motorcycle pulling away almost drowns out the merry little jingle of the bell announcing his arrival. Glancing back out of the doorway he shakes his head. **Tonight's been a little bit out of the norm, even for me.** Turning back to the shop he notices that his entry had brought everything in the room to a halt. From the tension in the room its apparent that Willow and Tara are having another argument. The two witches have been having some problems lately, they were getting into more and more arguments about smaller and smaller things. With a slight frown Xander stands in the doorway looking at the two girls with a questioning expression. Willow is looking up at Xander with an annoyed tilt to her head and after a second says something quietly to Tara before heading over to the door to help Xander carry in the food.

Xander watches Tara's face as Willow says whatever it was she says and sees sadness and pain lurking in Tara's quite eyes. Over the last few months he had begun to worry about the gentle witch, she seemed so sad all the time. As her lover walks away from her Tara just looks on with dismay and a sad acceptance.

Across the room Cordy and Wes are sitting at the table with their faces buried in books, obviously trying to stay out of the disagreement they had just been subjected to and Fred, the new girl, is off in the corner talking to herself as she looks through one of the larger demonology texts.

Seeing the looks on everyone's faces Xander decides he gets to be 'Referee-Guy' again. Yippie, what joy. The two witches have been going at it like cats and dogs all summer. He is startled to admit it be he is starting to side with Tara about most of the fights now, although he tries to remain neutral. Willow really is relying too much on magic in her daily life. Making eggs scrable themselves magically is just going a little to far... As Willow gets to him Xander puts on a concerned expression and asks her in a quite voice. "What's up?"

"Your late."

Raiseing an sarcastic eyebrow at the redhead Xander states in a dry voice, "I doubt that my being a little late with the pizza's would cause you and Tara to argue. Again. Now what's wrong Wills?"

Sighing the redheaded witch says in a voice designed to be carried across the room to Tara. "Tara doesn't agree with me that I need to go into Buffy's mind again. We _need_ to figure out what went wrong Xander. Buffy just sits there, doing nothing. Unless of course there is a vampire or something near her, then its all slay, slay, slay and kill, kill, kill." Running her hands through her hair Willow looks at Tara with an exasperated expression. "I need... we need to get inside there and find out if we brought Buffy back... or just a... an empty shell filed with nothing but slayer instincts."

Tara speaks up from across the room in a quite voice that has Xander straining to hear. "It's n..n..not that. I... I just think that it's not safe... I was j...just w...worried for Willow." The blondes stutter was making an appearance. Something it hadn't done in a good while.

Flashing Tara a sympathetic look Xander steers Willow over to the counter where he puts the pizza boxes down. Then taking Willow by the arm he leads her into the office and closes the door. Turning to face Willos he stares into her eyes trying to see his life-long friend. And he is scared when he doesn't see what he needs to see in her eyes. Compassion. Caring. Anything like that. All he sees when he looks at her is cold as steel determination mixed with a slight bit of seeming madness. Her eyes have the same look as Glory had, the burning glint of madness. Shaking his head to clear it of those negative thoughts and hoping that he just read to much into them he asks Willow, "Do you really think it's a good idea to just hop back into Buffy's mind like that, Wills? I mean, she _is_ just two days back from the great beyond. That's bound to screw with your head. I mean, Hell, right now it's like Buffy's not home and the Slayer is was left in charge while she stepped out, your right about that. But you should give her some time here Wills, see if she can come out of it on her own."

Seeing Willow about to make a comment, Xander gently takes her hand and says, "Look, lets do a compromise, ok?. Give Buffy a few days, a week, and if she isn't back to at least talking to us we'll go ahead with your telepathy psychoanalyst thing. Ok?" Seeing the resolve on her face start to falter Xander just waits. After a few seconds Willow nods her head in concession and Xander smiles gently down at her. Looking out the door at the distrait Tara he finishes with, "Now go make up with your girlfriend, ok?" 

As Willow goes back into the main room Xander leans up against the desk and shakes his head in disbelief. If you had told him two years ago that he was going to be the voice of reason in their little group he would have been the first one to offer you an all expenses paid trip to the loony bin. But, as it turns out that is exactly where he was now. The responsible thing not the loony bin. With Giles leaving for England, Willow acting rather obsessive-compulsive about Buffy's return, and Anya's... Shaking his head and pushing that thought away from him Xander covers his face with both hands and lets out a long low moan of frustration. Then, sighing to himself and shaking his head once more Xander stands up from the desk and leaving the office sees Willow and Tara hugging and talking quitely. Returning the grateful nods that Wes and Cordy give him, Xander grabs a pizza and six pack and heads back to the training area where he had left Buffy and Dawn earlier when he had made up the excuse to go get pizza after feeling the 'buzz'.

**Hope she found the place all right.**

**Emmerson Apartments  
Sunnydale, CA  
October 5, 2001 22:21 PDT**

After getting lost once Faith had indeed found Emerson Apartments. She had confused Lakeview and Lakecrest cemeteries. **Think they may have added more graveyards while I was gone.** Faith chuckles to herself as she parks the bike in one of the visitor's spots in front of Xand's apartment building. Hopping off the bike Faith strips off the gloves and helmet and pockets the keys to the Harley while looking at the apartment complex. **Nice digs X-man. Wonder what it's like inside.** Climbing the stairway to the second floor Faith balances the pizza and six-pack in one hand and unlocks Xanders apartment door with the keys he had given her. Pushing the door open with her foot she feels around next to the door for a second before finding the light switch and after flipping on the light she closes the door. Turning around Faith stops for a second and just stares at the apartment. It is a _lot_ nicer then she had thought it would be. It's decoration is done in early bachelor, but its obvious that Xander is doing well for himself. TV with VCR and DVD player and stereo along one wall, a comfortable looking leather couch facing it with a coffee table that's littered in magazines and comic books. There is a heavy oak table in the center of the room that is positively covered with old books, knives, a few stakes, and other miscellaneous items of a slaying lifestyle. Not much in the way of wall decoration except for up over the couch there are three swords. Faith wonders if they are the swords from the 3 Immortals he had said that he'd faced. The windows give a great view of the graveyard. Not the best view for most but it probably dropped the price of the apartment some.

Dropping the pizza and soda on the small space on the table she clears off Faith heads to the kitchen and grabs some paper towels and fills a glass with ice from the freezer. Heading back out to the main room she pops the top of one of the sodas and pours it into the glass. Taking a sip she wanders around to look at the rest of the apartment.

**It is a bachelor's apartment alright,** Faith thinks after checking in the bathroom, **he definitely lives here by himself.** There are no obvious pieces of feminine occupancy anywhere to be found. Most girls leave _something_ in the bathroom a toothbrush, a hair brush, something. There was nothing. She remembers that Angel had mentioned that Xander had been seeing Anya, that ex-demon chick that was responsible for the whole Vampire Willow thing, but its apparent that she doesn't have anything here at all. Faith wondered what had happened to her. **Not a big deal,** Faith thinks, **As long as she is out of the picture now, that's all that matters.** She _was_ just a little bit curious though.

As Faith enters the bedroom she has to laugh out loud. The bed was in the middle of the wall across from the door, under the window, it was unmade and the sheets have Taz on them and one of the pillows has a Spider-Man pillowcase. Smiling and shaking her head she looks around the room and sees the strange mixture that is Xander. On the wall across the room is a floor to ceiling bookcase that goes the length of the room, looking like it was built after Xander moved in. Angel had said he was working construction now. Walking over to the bookcase she glances at the books, hundreds of books filling the shelves. she would never had guessed that he had the time let alone the inclination to read all these. Some as old and musty as the ones that she remembers Giles having, and some are the newest best sellers. The book _Vampyre_ resting next to the latest King novel. David Drake mixed with Van Helsing. She is surprised by the eclectic nature of the collection. Of course, interspersed with the old tomes are comic books, graphic novels and some toys. Spawn and Jason duel to the death near the guy from Akira and his space aged bike. G.I. Joe battle it out with Transformers and Go-Bots. And over in the corner He-Man stands over the defeated body of Skelator.

Over on the other wall is his collection of Babylon 5 plates and on the dresser beneath them are loads of pictures, a few stakes and a box of ammunition. Walking over to the pictures she sees the standard Scooby Gang pics, the ones taken at the Docks, the fair, and the prom. Buffy, Willow and Giles dominate the pictures with Cordy, Dawn and Red's girl coming in a close second. There are some of who she can only guess to be Anya. The big surprise to her are the pictures of her in the collection. She wasn't aware that there were any pictures of her out there, other then maybe some mug shots.

There is one of her and Buffy dancing, taken at some point in the Bronze, it's not 'The Dance', of course, but some other time. She wishes that there had been a picture of them that night, that night just before everything went to shit. The pounding rhythm of the techno song had swept the two slayers along with it, making the world disappear, drowning out the constant pain that had been Faith's life. It had been a good night, she and B had been making some connections. Life was looking up for the dark slayer. That was of course when fate stepped in and kicked Faith's feet out from underneath her.

Another is a picture of her in the library training. A fierce determined look spread across her face, in the middle of a side kick to Giles' ribs. Hell, there is even a picture of her in that damned homecoming dress she had stolen. She looked damn good in it too. 

Shaking her head at the unexpectedness of finding pictures of herself on Xanders dresser Faith smiles gently as she traces the edge of a picture frame that holds a picture of Xander and B, two of the three people she gave a damn about. Tracing B's face softly, Faith frowns to herself. **Never got the chance to say I'm sorry, B. Not to your face anyway. So... I'm sorry. I had hoped that once I got out you and X would... accept me back. Looks like Xander has forgiven me, but I'll never get a chance to find out with you.** Putting the picture back on the dresser gently Faith takes one last look around the bedroom and smiles once more at the duality of Xander.

She leaves the bedroom and flipping on the radio to a station she remembers as playing some decent rock 'n roll, she flops down at the table and digs into the still-warm pizza and soda.

After demolishing the pizza Faith throws out the box and the empty soda cans. Looking around the apartment Faith just grins to herself. She has got some plans for tonight, oh yes. Tonight was gonna be something special. Quickly grabing one of Xanders button up shirts from his closet she heads to the bathroom to take a quick shower before he gets home. She's gotta look and smell nice when Xander gets home after all. **Like Hell your sleeping on the couch Xander.** she thinks to herself as she closes the bathroom door. 

**Motel 6  
Room 312  
Los Angeles, CA  
October 5, 2001 22:35 PDT**

The floor in the bathroom of room 312 would never be the same. The motel management is definitely going to have to remove the linoleum and replace it as Visak had burned a series of three circles into the floor, each separated from the other by strange glowing eldrich symbols that were etched with a slow swipe of his finger along the floor. In the center of the innermost circle Visak kneels with just a loincloth, his shimmering scaled skin reflecting the blue symbols eerily. He is muttering words in an unknown language, one that would be unpronounceable to a human, as it involved his forked tongue and second set of teeth to make the hissing clicks and guttural moans. Beside him on the floor is a small bronze bowl and inside that bowl is a small green flame that is dancing merrily upon a pool of fowl smelling liquid. Every fifteen seconds Visak would pick up a pinch of powder from a pile sitting on the tile next to him and drop it into the flame and mutter a quick _click-hiss-moan_ that would grate upon human ears.

Wilhelm and Lea are standing outside the bathroom door watching the ritual with varied degrees of interest. Actually Lea isn't showing any interest at all, as usual, and Wilhelm is just waiting calmly until Visak is able to tell him where the Immortal Slayer is. Patience is a virtue after all and it is something he has had to learn over his five hundred or so years of life.

Coming out of his trance Visak looks up and with a confused look on his scaly face tells Wilhelm, "Either something is going wrong with the spell or she has found a way to block it. All I received was a vague feeling of North."

Nodding to himself as if the news confirmed something he already knew Wilhelm asks "Would the Hellmouth interfere with the reading if she was on it?"

Looking chagrined Visak nods and says, "I should have realized that myself. Yes, it would make the readings vague. And I would need to be on the Hellmouth to get a more reliable reading as there is no way that I can think of to counteract the damper effect of that much chaos energy."

"Ok, pack up then. We are off to Sunnydale."

**Restfield Cemetery  
Sunnydale, CA  
October 5, 2001 22:36 PDT**

Soft moonlight shines down and glints gently off of the gravemarkers, the tombstones rendered readable by the brightness of the nearly full moon. The freshly mown grass, even and neat, giving the impression of a carpet spread out under the stars. Row upon row of graves stretch out under the sky in one of Sunnydales largest cemeteries, Restfield. All seems peaceful and quiet, then again this is Sunnydale and the old adage of 'It's always calmest before the storm.' never has proved truer then here. The graveyard's silence is suddenly broken, the quiet interrupted by a meaty thud and a grunt of pain as from behind a crypt a body comes flying through the air. Hitting the ground hard Spike tumbles across the grass and comes to a sudden stop as he impacts against a tombstone. His jacket is wrapped around his legs, making his efforts at getting up awkward and slow. Nearly too slow in fact. Spikes head snaps up when he hears rapid footsteps approaching, and he sees five fully vamped out figures racing across the lawn towards him. **That leaves seven for the poof.** Untangling himself from his duster Spike barely has time to stand up before his attackers reach him. 

The vampires are attacking one on one, just as they always do. The demons never seem to learn the advantage of ganging up on their target. Spike had overheard Giles explaining it to Buffy once. Vampire attack patterns stem from the fact that vampires are, first and foremost, predators; not soldiers. Pack mentality leads the strongest to attack first as they get 'First Dibs' per se. Most vampires cannot overcome their instincts. This is something for which Spike is grateful for as the one in charge comes at him first. 

Ducking a clumsy haymaker Spike launches a powerful uppercut that catches his opponent squarely in the chin, lifting the vampire up and off the ground and sending him tumbling back into the waiting vampires. Spike reaches down and rips the tombstone that he had tumbled into up out of the ground with one quick tug. Tossing it at the two vampires that are still standing with a quick overhand toss Spike leaps at the tangle of three that were just getting up and sorting themselves out, trusting that the other two would be distracted by the slab of marble. 

One of the three is faster then expected and as Spike reaches the vampires he gets a foot to the stomach. Bending over in pain Spike gets his legs swept out from underneath him and lands heavily on his back. Looking up from the ground at the ridged faces of his five foes Spike gets a good look at the leader of this band of vampires.

Standing at 6'4" with shaggy brown hair that hangs down to his shoulders, there are chains and spikes decorating his black leather jacket. A gray sweatshirt with the logo for the Minnesota Vikings football team covers his chest and a pair of black leather chaps covers a pair of faded blue jeans with black steel toed boots completing the ensemble. On his face is a tattoo of a spider web.

"Bloody Hell!! Joshua?"

~~~~   
**_TBC...   
  
DaBear_**


	8. Whispers

Something in Common Part VIII: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction 

See Part one for disclaimers.

~~~~

**Back Room of The Magic Box  
Sunnydale, CA  
October 5, 2001 22:36 PDT**

For the last half hour Xander had been sitting in the back room of the magic box with the Summers Sisters and had been talking with Dawn while they took turns feeding Buffy some of the pizza. Buffy would eat what was put in her hands but after finishing the one piece of pizza she wouldn't pick up another, but after getting Buffy to eat four pieces and drinking a soda she had refused to eat, simply holding the pizza until Xander gently removed it from her hand and placed it back in the box. All three of them were sitting on the green couch in the training room with Buffy in the middle, Dawn was leaning up against her sister and playing gently with her hair, which was back to it's original light brown. Death and Resurrection having removed the dye and Buffy being blond is the last of the Scooby Gangs current worries, so no one had bothered to re-dye it

Xander and Dawn were talking quietly over Buffy about school, tests and boys; at least Dawn was talking about boys, Xander was nodding along as Dawn raves about… Trevor? Xander's not too sure as he is worrying about Buffy, Faith, Willow, Tara, Giles, Dawn… shaking his head Xander realizes that he is worried about everyone, well everyone except Spike, he could care less about the bleached vampire. 

Midway through a sentence Dawn glances up and catches the vacant look that had been in Buffy's eyes since her return from the dead and breaks out into sobs. Quickly getting up from the couch Xander comes around Buffy and drops to his knees in front of Dawn and pulls her into his arms. Dawn buries her tear streaked face into his chest and starts to sob heart wrenchingly into his shirt, soaking it quickly while trying to say something through the hiccups. Xander just strokes Dawns long hair and mumbles reassuring words into her ear as he holds her tightly. "There, there Dawnie. Buffy'll get better, you know she will. She's a Slayer, she won't let something like death keep her down, hun. She's too stubborn for that."

"But *sob*, but what if she doesn't *sob*, doesn't get better. What will I do then? Mom's dead. No one knows where Dad is. Buffy's a god bedamned vegetable...*sob*" her words trail off nonsensically as she continues to cry into Xander's shirt.

"You know that I am here for you two. If nothing else you can live with me and..." He pauses a second and then continues on a different train of thought. "...and we can watch the Sci-Fi channel and eat popcorn. It'll be one long party and Xanders place. But Buffy'll get better Dawnie, ya gotta have faith that she will." Buffy's head pops up at that last sentence but Xander and Dawn fail to notice. "You gotta have faith that she'll get better and that she'll come back to us from her trip to La-La land. Faith that she'll help take care of you...." With each use of the word 'faith' Buffy had been paying more and more attention to the two other people in the room with her and with that last one she had reached forward and grabbed Xander's arm; hard.

"...faith..."

Xander's and Dawn's heads both jerk around to focus on Buffy at her whispered word, ever since the first night, when she had asked if this was hell; she hadn't said a word to anyone.

~~~~

**Restfield Cemetery  
Sunnydale, CA  
October 5, 2001 22:38 PDT**

"Bloody Hell!! Joshua?"

The larger vampire just smiles a sharks tooth smile at the platinum blond elder and while casually wiping the trail blood off of his lips and chin , Joshua nods to Spike's recognition. Looking around at his cadre of followers, Joshua jerks his head at Spike and says in a gravely tone, "Boys and ghouls, I'd like to introduce to you William the Bloody, he _used_ to be a bad ass vampire. He was once a part of the infamous Scourge of Europe. A one-time paramour to Drusilla the Mad, until she decided that a Chaos Demon had more personality. And the slayer of, get this, not one, but _two_ Slayers. And look at him. Now he's the Slayer's little puppy dog. Leashed, muzzled and neutered. And a traitor to his own kind." With a contemptuous wave of his hand to his followers, Joshua says "Kill him, slowly."

Scrambling up from the ground Spike begins to say, "Now hold on 'ere, mate..." but before he could finish the sentence he gets dog piled by the four lesser vampires as they take him to the ground and try to pin him. The five vampires roll around on the ground, fighting for supremacy and position, bumping into an occasional tombstone, four against one but the fight is evenly matched, as Spike pulls out all the dirty tricks and nasty moves that he has learned over the last 2 centuries. Close-in fighting, especially on the ground, involves the elbows and knees, there is not enough leverage from the ground for punches or kicks. So Spike elbow-smashes faces, knees groins and kidneys and uses his claws and teeth to rip and tear at eyes and throats. Then, one of the vampires screams; before disintegrating into a pile of dust as Spike manages to rip out his throat with his claws. The vampire dissolves and the pile of vampire's shifts to the left and Spike is able to squirm his way free. As he is reaching his feet Spike is grabbed roughly by the back of his duster and gets jerked back. Looking up Spike see's Joshua's grinning face as his fist, which is the size of a small ham, pistoned into Spikes stomach over and over again. Lifted up off of the ground with each blow Spike's legs finally fail to support his body and he crumples in on himself. 

Two of the three remaining vampires then grab Spike in an arm lock and haul him roughly to his feet. Chuckling roughly Joshua pulls out a stake from his belt and grabbing Spike by the hair at the back of his head, leans into Spikes face and with an evil grin asks "Any final words Spiky?" 

Opening his eyes Spike stares blearily at Joshua and then with a twisted grin says "Yea', I'd like ta say 'Hello Peaches'." 

Joshua looks slightly confused for a second before a tombstone, wielded by Angel, crashes into the back of his head, knocking him head over heels into the vamp that was standing there doing nothing knocking both unconscious. Angel looks at his grandchilde with disgust and frowning he says "I told you to stop calling me that, Spike." 

"Ya know how I am at takin' orders." Spike flexes his arms and with an effort flips the two vamps holding his arms forward and off balance. Angel casually dusts the one on Spike's left and William the Bloody then proceeds to pound his opponent into paste before staking him. Grinning in exhilaration Spike bounces up and down a few times, similar to a boxer's stance until he remembers Joshua.

Turning the two master vampires look to Joshua... or where he would have been if it hadn't have obviously been somewhere else. The only thing on the ground is the last vampire, dazedly shacking his head. Looking around Spike and Angel see neither hide nor hair of the Joshua. Spike snorts in disgust and taking a cigarette out of his duster pocket lights it up with the comment "Disappears faster then Droopy when there's work to do." Snapping the Zippo closed Spike reaches into his jacket and pulls out a stake and casually dusts the last vampire.

"Spike?"

"Yeah Peeches?"

"We really should have interrogated him first to find out where Joshua is hiding out."

"Bloody Hell!!"

~~~~

**_TBC_**

DaBear 


End file.
